Mark Zuckerberg announces layoff of 11,000 employees amid effort to cut costs
Heather Hamilton
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Meta, Facebook’s parent company, announced it will lay off more than 11,000 employees in a move set to be the largest round of cuts seen in the tech company’s near two-decade history.
CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced the layoffs Wednesday in an announcement.
“I’ve decided to reduce the size of our team by about 13% and let more than 11,000 of our talented employees go,” Zuckerberg said in the announcement. “We are also taking a number of additional steps to become a leaner and more efficient company by cutting discretionary spending and extending our hiring freeze through Q1.”
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“I want to take accountability for these decisions and for how we got here. I know this is tough for everyone, and I’m especially sorry to those impacted,” Zuckerberg added.
In September, Meta said it would be taking actions to cut expenses by at least 10%, including staff layoffs. Last month, Meta rescinded internship offers set to begin in January 2023.
Zuckerberg told his staff that he and “many people” expected the surge of e-commerce that began at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic to be a “permanent acceleration.” He admitted it “did not play out the way I expected.”
“Not only has online commerce returned to prior trends, but the macroeconomic downturn, increased competition, and ads signal loss have caused our revenue to be much lower than I’d expected,” the Meta CEO said. “I got this wrong, and I take responsibility for that.”
The company will focus on becoming more capital efficient. Zuckerberg noted that resources will be shifted into a smaller number of “high-priority growth areas,” including the AI discovery engine, advertising and business platforms, and the metaverse.
Employees were told they would be receiving an email with details of how the layoffs affect them.
Meta will offer employees who are let go a severance of 16 weeks of base pay and two additional weeks for every year of service. Remaining time off will be paid out, in addition to healthcare offered for six months to affected employees and their families. The company also said it would offer career support through an external vendor and immigration support for those who need it.
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The decision followed the company reporting its first decline in revenue in the second quarter of 2022 and CEO Mark Zuckerberg reporting a $70 billion reduction in net worth.
Zuckerberg saw his personal fortune plunge by another $11 billion in October as his company’s stock value dove, bringing his net worth to $38.1 billion.